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Cost of Living in Barcelona
Summary about cost of living in Barcelona:
- Four-person family monthly costs: 2,120.77£ (2,319.54€) without rent (using our estimator).
- A single person monthly costs: 607.27£ (664.19€) without rent.
- Cost of living rank 168th out of 381 cities in the world.
- Barcelona has a cost of living index of 59.83.
| Restaurants | [ Edit ] | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Meal, Inexpensive Restaurant | 10.97 £ | |
| Meal for 2 People, Mid-range Restaurant, Three-course | 36.57 £ | |
| McMeal at McDonalds (or Equivalent Combo Meal) | 6.40 £ | |
| Domestic Beer (1 pint draught) | 2.74 £ | |
| Imported Beer (12 oz small bottle) | 2.74 £ | |
| Cappuccino (regular) | 1.70 £ | |
| Coke/Pepsi (12 oz small bottle) | 1.61 £ | |
| Water (12 oz small bottle) | 1.16 £ | |
| Markets | [ Edit ] | |
| Milk (regular), (1 gallon) | 2.86 £ | |
| Loaf of Fresh White Bread (1 lb) | 0.82 £ | |
| Rice (white), (1 lb) | 0.39 £ | |
| Eggs (regular) (12) | 1.40 £ | |
| Local Cheese (1 lb) | 4.56 £ | |
| Chicken Breasts (Boneless, Skinless), (1 lb) | 2.68 £ | |
| Beef Round (1 lb) (or Equivalent Back Leg Red Meat) | 4.19 £ | |
| Apples (1 lb) | 0.68 £ | |
| Banana (1 lb) | 0.62 £ | |
| Oranges (1 lb) | 0.57 £ | |
| Tomato (1 lb) | 0.64 £ | |
| Potato (1 lb) | 0.42 £ | |
| Onion (1 lb) | 0.52 £ | |
| Lettuce (1 head) | 0.84 £ | |
| Water (1.5 liter bottle) | 0.58 £ | |
| Bottle of Wine (Mid-Range) | 4.57 £ | |
| Domestic Beer (0.5 liter bottle) | 0.67 £ | |
| Imported Beer (12 oz small bottle) | 1.24 £ | |
| Cigarettes 20 Pack (Marlboro) | 4.57 £ | |
| Transportation | [ Edit ] | |
| One-way Ticket (Local Transport) | 1.97 £ | |
| Monthly Pass (Regular Price) | 47.54 £ | |
| Taxi Start (Normal Tariff) | 2.29 £ | |
| Taxi 1 mile (Normal Tariff) | 1.66 £ | |
| Taxi 1hour Waiting (Normal Tariff) | 20.21 £ | |
| Gasoline (1 gallon) | 4.60 £ | |
| Volkswagen Golf 1.4 90 KW Trendline (Or Equivalent New Car) | 20,114.76 £ | |
| Toyota Corolla 1.6l 97kW Comfort (Or Equivalent New Car) | 18,997.72 £ | |
| Utilities (Monthly) | [ Edit ] | |
| Basic (Electricity, Heating, Cooling, Water, Garbage) for 915 sq ft Apartment | 132.81 £ | |
| 1 min. of Prepaid Mobile Tariff Local (No Discounts or Plans) | 0.12 £ | |
| Internet (60 Mbps or More, Unlimited Data, Cable/ADSL) | 40.03 £ | |
| Sports And Leisure | [ Edit ] | |
| Fitness Club, Monthly Fee for 1 Adult | 38.82 £ | |
| Tennis Court Rent (1 Hour on Weekend) | 17.22 £ | |
| Cinema, International Release, 1 Seat | 7.77 £ | |
| Childcare | [ Edit ] | |
| Preschool (or Kindergarten), Full Day, Private, Monthly for 1 Child | 391.82 £ | |
| International Primary School, Yearly for 1 Child | 7,357.06 £ | |
| Clothing And Shoes | [ Edit ] | |
| 1 Pair of Jeans (Levis 501 Or Similar) | 69.09 £ | |
| 1 Summer Dress in a Chain Store (Zara, H&M, ...) | 25.71 £ | |
| 1 Pair of Nike Running Shoes (Mid-Range) | 72.41 £ | |
| 1 Pair of Men Leather Business Shoes | 86.58 £ | |
| Rent Per Month | [ Edit ] | |
| Apartment (1 bedroom) in City Centre | 889.23 £ | |
| Apartment (1 bedroom) Outside of Centre | 664.66 £ | |
| Apartment (3 bedrooms) in City Centre | 1,440.03 £ | |
| Apartment (3 bedrooms) Outside of Centre | 1,024.44 £ | |
| Buy Apartment Price | [ Edit ] | |
| Price per Square Feet to Buy Apartment in City Centre | 383.42 £ | |
| Price per Square Feet to Buy Apartment Outside of Centre | 265.87 £ | |
| Salaries And Financing | [ Edit ] | |
| Average Monthly Net Salary (After Tax) | 1,323.53 £ | |
| Mortgage Interest Rate in Percentages (%), Yearly, for 20 Years Fixed-Rate | 2.42 |
Prices in Barcelona
These data are based on 3605 entries in the past 18 months from 466 different contributors.
Last update: August 2019
Last update: August 2019
Sources and References:
No sources and references provided yet.
No sources and references provided yet.
This page in other languages:
DeutschLebenshaltungskosten in Barcelona
PortuguêsCusto de Vida em Barcelona
ItalianoCosto della Vita a Barcellona
FrançaisCoût de la Vie à Barcelona
EspañolCosto de Vida en Barcelona
58 Comments so far
I have 2 years of experience in Digital Marketing. Is this industry developed in Barcelona? Can I expect to find job easily in the field with competitive salary for Barcelona?
Barcelona is shit for the long-term and ok for 1-2 years max.
Locals aren't too friendly as they see you as a cause of the cities many economical problems.
Salaries are awful, work hours long, rent is super high, apartments are cold as hell in winter time.
Good jobs are hard to come by and there is a surplus of MBA studenty and people with masters willing to work way below their usual fee demands.
The foo and weather is good but thats about it, these locals are so greedy. Don't believe me? just look at the many rental sites and you'll see a tiny room for 500 euro to share in an apt with 4-5 other people...lovely.
My advise is, come for a year or two and then go somewhere better for serious things like pensions, salaries, house prices that make sense etc.
And oh yeah...I forgot to mention the insane amount of theft here.
58.200 Gross per Year is a good salary for Barcelona?
If you pay the full year upfront or half is there any cash incentive usually given in the market? i see no one does that so i bet i could get a better value on the lease.
Realtors get the money from the renters commision rather from the owner right? is there any negotiation where you usually give them an incentive to lower the price and close the deal and compensate them on the side?
Just ideas... maybe something like this is happenign, love to hear some local's view on this matter.
Cheers.
Why should anybody put in the time and effort to answer your questions if you are even too lazy to READ others detailed answers? Selfish people like you don't deserve an answer! It's that simple!
Why should anybody put in the time and effort to answer your questions if you are even too lazy to READ others detailed answers? Selfish people like you don't deserve an answer! It's that simple!
The company will take care of relocation expenses.
Considering the cost of kindergarten for two in a bilingual (catalan and english) school system and rent for 2 - 3 room apartment possibly outside the center of the city.
Would this offer be able to sustain me and my family and make little savings?
58.200 Gross per Year is a good salary for Barcelona? Am I going to have a decent life?
thats probably a standard salary for IT specialists in Spain, but not a good one compared to what you would get in Dublin, Poland, UK, UAE, USA.
With the cost of life of Barcelona with 40k you would get barely a mid-class life and no savings for buying an house or planning to retire early with good money.
Already in cheaper cities in Poland IT specialists working for corps they get easily 2000 EUR net a month, and working for more interesting projects than those in Spain.
20k is pretty low considering the cost of living in Barcelona these days.
Before you accept any job offer take a look at the rental market because it will take up more than 50% of your salary in most cases. If you decide to live outside of city centre you have a lower rent but a higher cost with transports and spend time commuting.
It costs 2-3 times more to rent an apartment and the salaries are still the same as a number of years ago.
To rent an apartment you need to pay:
1. One rent or 10% of a years worth of rent to the letting agency. Their fees.
2. Two to three rents as deposit.
3. Subscribe for insurance on the apartment as the owners don’t fix appliances, etc there are cases where owners try to hold your deposits over things that were previously broken but not detailed in the contract.
4. You may have to consider paying 800-1000€ to get help from a relocation agency to help with contracts, NIE, Social Security number, etc.
I was offered a job that pays 3.400 eur net a month, however I can't move with family due to the high rental costs.
For example for an apartment which costs 1.400 euro a month, it can take up to 6.000 eur to secure it (deposit, fees and first rent). Anyone going through the same situation? Any workarounds suggested?
Transport is very cheap - expect to pay 40€-50€ at most/monthy. I have a car and it costs me about €2000 yearly (fuel, taxes, insurance for 15-20k km driven). Standard taxi ride is 6-10€ (double in the night). Restaurants price are €20-€25 per person in a good restaurant with quality food. High-end restaurants cost €40-€60 per person. Possible to eat very decent lunch in many places for €10-€12/daily menu. Great variety. Bars and clubs - beer is 3-5€, shots €2-€3, drinks 7-12€. Most nightclubs are free to enter until 1.30am. Rent prices - small room in the central areas is €400. A bigger and more luxurious one is €500-€600. Expenses included. Rooms outside the central neighbourhoods are €300-€350. Apartment prices are roughly €20/m2 for the small and centric apartments. €15/m2 for the bigger centric apartments. 12/m2 for bigger but not centric apartments and 8-10€ for bigger apartments in not-so-cool neighbourhods. Water is €30/month. Telephone and internet - €50. Electricity and gas - €60 (including winter months on central gas heating). Parking is €80-€120 a month, but it's flexible. Hourly parking in most places is around €3/hour.
If you speak native german or english and you work in IT or similar, you'll get around €2000 net salary easily. For a single person, that's quite good, given that the offices are close to the beach and healthcare is free. These companies also pay bonuses and food coupons so expect to spend €200/monthly on groceries at most (even if you eat shrimp, blueberries and sirloin steaks). Private kindergartens are €300-€800/month. Golf course game is €50-€70. Pitch & Putt - €15. Highways in Cataluña are expensive - roughly €10/80km.
Gym is €35-€50. Flights to most european cities are €70-€150 for a roundtrip. As some other people have said, with a salary of €3000 you are king. I was making that for around 3 years and I managed to save €30k with the idea to have my own business.
Cost of living in Madrid is similar, while Valencia rent and cost of living is twice less. Seems a deal, but Valencia doesn't have the charm of Madrid and Barcelona. Infrastructure is top-notch.
Weather in Barcelona is great (for european city) with the only exception being mid-July to mid-August when it's extremely hot and humid (30C all day all night).
In general, if you don't have kids, a net salary of €1500 is a good start. Anything less limits your lifestlye and anything more improves on it. Minimum salary in Spain is €800 and I already mentioned that south of spain and valencia are twice as cheaper as Barcelona, Madrid and Basque country. So you aim to earn at lest double that in these areas to have a decent lifestyle.
What is comfortably? I share an apartment in Nova Ezquerra de l'Example near Sants Estació, a 3 bedroom apartment, 78 sq. m. apartment that my friends and I furnished, which comes to 1000€/month. We don't pay water, and for the three of us electricity is about 37€/month, gas around 25€/month, and internet is 33€/month. I pay 350€/month rent since my room is toward the street and get sunlight with balcony access. My gym membership is 26.9€/month. All in all, I consider it quite cheap.
Prior to defending my thesis, I will be starting a job at a consultancy that will pay me a base salary of 45000€ gross, plus a fixed bonus a year that I was able to negotiate given some outside offers I had back in the US, and a variable performance bonus. I would say that here, this type of salary is outside the norm (corporate bank jobs, for example at la Caixa, will pay a little more than this).
You'll find that the labor market is dominated by call center work. And that getting 30k€ is probably considered decent money. But then again, except for rent (unless you're fortunate enough to purchase your own place and pay less), most other aspects of life here is cheap.
I'm a student and I want to know how much money should I have per month for live
This brought the money in real estate from a lot of rich 3rdworlders that who knows how they made them, and so landlords skyrocketed the prices
Thank you any Help
At the time, it was an improvement in terms of what I got for my salary, the climate, a quieter pace of life...now all that has changed dramatically.
DON'T BE FOOLED, this is an incredibly expensive city. Most people get around 1200 euro net pcm.
All of it will go to your landlord (around 1000 euro pcm for a 65sq metres 2 bed appartment is about right these days in a decent area). Bear in mind...you will rent through estate agents, or as I call them, racketeers. They will charge you aroung 1500 (administrative fees, they call it)just to rent you the flat. Then you will need at least a 2 months deposit (2000 euro) which at the end of the contract you will or will not get back...take pictures of how you get the flat and how you leave it, or they will claim everything was perfect and you vandalized it...AKA bye bye 2000 euro. The flat will never be perfect and once you move in...all refurbishment is at your own cost.
Expect cold damp places in winter and suffocating heat in the summer; unless you have central heating and aa/cc, which will cost you around 120 euro pcm to run...electricity and mobile companies are my other pet hates after landlords and estate agents these days. Yes, I said cold and damp, because the idea of insulation never crossed a Spanish mind and most places don't look onto charming plazas, but into dark and dingy courtyards.
If you think you like the weather because you've been to sunny places on holidays, consider that it is not the same as working, travelling, etc at 30ºC+ degrees for weeks on end. If you are British, winters will feel like early spring to you though.
Locals are not that friendly. They may want to improve their English and talk to you, but do not expect making many friends here. They keep to themselves pretty much.
And this is far from a quiet place any more...just think that 18 million tourist at the most conservative count visited the city in 2016. The impact on what you will pay for food, clothing, etc is major.
So, if I were you, I would think of another place to live. I will be moving out asap.
Bottom line is this city doesn't really work in terms of what you can earn vs cost of living. You'll get your two days a week down the beach and enjoy a charming city but when it comes to wanting to buy a house, having a family or saving for a decent pension then maybe best to not spend a long time in this city. Obviously there is a tiny percentage of people who get a decent salary and they'll only to be too glad to tell you (like some of the below on this thread).
I would say average salary here is 1200 euro net. If you are self-employed the make it really hard which explains why 25% of the Spanish economy is black money.
A poisoned apple of my city in my opinion, but hey, thats the price of beauty. Here we go with Venice 2.0 based on the catalan greed.
http://gpsexcursion.com/search/Barcelona
i am assuming human being, right?
Cheers.
In September I am starting my MA degree at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. What do you think, how much money the student needs to make ends meet? I want to rent a flat near the university.
As for cost of living, as long as you don´t go to tourist places all the time its not too bad eating out and drinking locally, 1.50 a bottle of beer, and lunch for 10 euros 3 courses. Restaurants shouldnt be more than 30 pp outside the tourist trap.
The problem is the rent vs salary. For the average salary here, the rent should be about 4-500 a month, and apartments should be 100,000 instead of 300,000. The salaries are awful. IT is a little better, and you can earn 2000+ pcm, but when you are paying half that for rent and bills, then kids, food etc, a single (even good) income is very hard to live on.
I know my salary in London would be 4 or 5 times what i earn here, but you arent coming for the salary, youre coming for the life and soul of the city.
The taxes on goods is 21%, although there are some exceptions for ex. Restaurants 7%, essential food 4%.
My 2016 bills (i live alone). Water, every two months, july-august 29,19€, september-october 30,05€. Light, every month, september, 27,01€, october, 29,34€. Gas, every two months, june-july 15,23€, august-september, 16,13€.
Monthly metro pass, 52,75€ (web tmb.cat).
Web to look for a job: infojobs
To have an idea of prices of restaurants: web bcnrestaurantes.com and eltenedor.es, on a saturday night an average place is 25-30€. Of course there are more expensive restaurants, and places to eat for less.
An alcoholic drink in a pub on a saturday night is 10-14€, a beer 3-6€.
At a bar, a coke 2,20.
Of course they are average prices, it is not the same to be at the neighbourhood bar than being in a rooftop at Passeig the Gracia.
Best regards
Georgio
Even an experienced and qualified IT specialist hardly banks more than 1500 EUR, in Poland and Ukraine you could make almost x2 that amount working in the outsourcing of the corporates, in UK/Ireland approx. x3 and in the GCC countries even x4.
Actually I want to know about Barcelona any body can tell me
Whata the basic salary in Barcelona in company as a packing man garments?
Thanks.
I wont buy a cafe or restuarant
Please help me how much cost of living index in barcelona?
Thank you and good loock
It's possible to live in Barcelona with 600 euros/month net fixed income? thank you
Just to share an experience. I am an East european, 2 and a half EU languages, master in accounting, 6 years proven experience and I got rejected on most of the interviews for asking 30k Gross/annual. That's 1.7k net.
Good luck to you all.
There definitely are jobs that pay more than 30,000, but they are not the norm (unless you're in a high management position or IT/programming).
Rent: I got very lucky with my place and found a multi-bedroom apartment (okay, 2 of the 3 bedrooms are really small) for just 550 per month in Sants ... not far from Sants Estació. I've been looking for a new place, though, and find that it's next to impossible to get something in the center (even as far out as Sants, which is on the border with L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (not Barcelona city)), that's in good condition for less than 700-800€. The Raval is maybe the only exception. You can, of course, find great apartments to share in the center and end up paying less than 500, but you won't be living alone.
All that being said, I don't know how, but here I do a lot more with a lot less and, as others have said, you earn a lot less than in North America and Northern European countries (though I have yet to see normal office jobs in London paying more than 25,000 GBP), but the lifestyle, climate, etc. more than make up for it.
I would appreciate if some one could tell me how much it is the %taxes in Spain.
Thank you in advance.
Regards, Mariana
Thanks
Of course you will need to move with the train because the car is almost impossible to have due to the high taxes so put 160£ per month on train offers , then put 300£ at least food and lets say you don't go out at all to have fun and drink so you end up paying more than you earn.
Need your help in understanding about the cost of living in Barcelona , I have been offered a job which pays me around 50000 euros per annum and it will be a local contract , I will be moving with my spouse. In addition I have my mother in law who is a widow and cannot be left back in India. Is the salary sufficient for me to live in Barcelona .. Considering that all my relocation expenses are taken care. If there any specific things that I may need to consider. Also if anyone has an idea about if my wife can work being a dependent.
Thanks in advance
Ive been living here for 7 years. Most of the people I know: Teachers, Waiters, architects, office workers get about 1000 a month, or less. Barcelona is a lovely city but its getting more and more expensive all the time and wages don't seem to be going up. Barcelona is a beautiful city but it can be hard.